The leaders of the military committee that seized power in Mali issued a basic law of government according to which the leader of the coup leaders was appointed as the president of the country, while the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for the start of a transitional phase that would restore the country to civilian rule within a year.
The basic law issued by the military, and published on Friday by Guetta, stipulates that the Chairman of the Military Commission will assume the powers of government in the country.
In the event of his absence, he shall be represented by the committee leaders according to their order in the list, provided that the committee guarantees the running of state institutions and the accreditation and appointment of ambassadors.
The law document, consisting of 41 articles explaining basic rights and duties, stipulates that the constitutional texts that contravene what are stated in it be frozen, and that it shall be enforced until the issuance of legislation organizing the transitional authority in Mali.
The ECOWAS calls for the return of civilian rule,
and a summit held today via video link of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called on the ruling military committee in Mali to immediately start a transitional phase that would restore the country to civilian rule, and to organize elections within 12 months, in exchange for a gradual lifting of the sanctions.
The final statement read by the President of Niger, the rotating chair of ECOWAS, Issoufou Mahamadou, stressed that this transitional period should lead to parliamentary and presidential elections within one year.
He also stressed the need to choose two civilian figures, one to lead the transitional period and the other to head the government, and that no military body should have any tutelage over the civilian transitional period bodies.
The President of Niger added that the sanctions imposed by the ECOWAS countries on Mali will be conditional on advancing the implementation of these demands and recommendations.
On the other hand, Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum arrived, Friday, to the southern neighbor, Mali, which is suffering from a stifling political crisis due to a military coup.
According to a statement by the Algerian Foreign Ministry, Boukadoum arrived in the capital, Bamako, on a one-day official visit, as an envoy from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
On August 18, a group of military officers overthrew President Brahima Keita, who had been ruling a country for years mired for years in a security, economic and political crisis.
The Economic Community of West African States imposed sanctions on the military council and on Mali by closing member states' borders with Mali and stopping financial and trade flows.
Keita, 75, was elected president in 2013 as a consensus and unifying figure in a torn country, and in 2018 he was elected to a second term of office of five years.
But his popularity declined after his failure to confront the bloody jihadist campaign that claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, in addition to his failure to curb the economic decline in the country.
After a series of escalating protests, Keita, Prime Minister Bobo Sisi and other senior officials were arrested by young officers who rebelled at a military base near Bamako and declared that they were the rulers of the country.
The putschists called their military council the "National Committee for the Salvation of the People", led by the country's strongman, Colonel Asimi Guetta (37 years).